Talking In Your Sleep
by TheRedHerring760
Summary: Red was always so hyper aware of sudden movements. It was rare that he truly fell into deep slumber, and on the nights that he did. She awoke to this haunted man, being consumed by the demons in the night. - Liz hears when Red talks in his sleep. (One-Shot)


**Disclaimer : **I don't have any affiliation with The Blacklist. Just borrowing Red and Liz for a little while, they will be returned once I am finished with them... I pinkie-promise.

_Prompts used for this One-Shot : "She's afraid of touching him" _

_Title and Fic inspiration drawn from the Civil War's cover of Talking In Your Sleep (Originally by the Romantics) _

_I do not own the lyrics to the song – just borrowing them for my muse._

* * *

_**When you close your eyes and you fall asleep. **_

_**And it's down to the sound of a heartbeat.**_

_**I can hear the things you're dreaming about.**_

_**When you open up your heart and the truth comes out.**_

The sounds of the waves breaking in the distance carried on the tails of the wind, which filtered in through the open doors of the balcony. The voile dressed frames swaying as an unsteady barrier from the cold. With his back to the silver moonlight his face was kept safely hidden in the shadows. Though even in the darkness she could just make out his mouth curling around unrecognizable words. Strung and compressed together until they were just growls, groans and light whimpers. She inches closer straining to make sense of nonsense. Grows anxious as she struggles to edge closer without alerting him.

Red was always so hyper aware of sudden movements. It was rare that he truly fell into deep slumber, and on the nights that he did. She awoke to this haunted man, being consumed by the demons in the night.

He jolts awake when she accidentally brushes too close – panting, and doe-eyed, he twists away from her hand that reaches for his arm. She can feel heat penetrating off of his fevered skin as it hovered stone still above him. She scoots up, rests her back against the headboard. Staring at him and awaits his next movement.

It's graceful, the way Red slides out of the bed. As if she was still sleeping instead of fully alert and watching him. He was in another world, his eyes unfocused, shifting wildly. He doesn't speak, and she's to apprehensive about breaking the silence – she's not sure if Red was even awake. He could be sleepwalking for all she knew.

He paces around the room, from one end to the other. His feet don't make a sound, and his arms stood concreted at his sides. It was almost like a ceremonial march. Red squared his shoulders as he paused in front of the french doors that separated their bedroom from the living space of the room. His hand grips the handle, his back tense as he merely held onto the hooked edge.

Her eyes follow his retreating form as it slips out of the room, turning down the hall for the exit. Hears the door shutting softly in the distance. She wonders if she should alert Dembe, or if she should chase after him herself. Her gut clenched, and she knew to just remain in the bed.

In the morning her fingers roam his side, the cotton sheets cool to the touch. She rolls onto her back as she blinks through her sleep riddled vision. Her eyes just barely adjusting to the harsh light falling in through the window.

She breaks out of the stupor of being fully awake and still half asleep, when she hears the hotel door click open – followed by quiet shuffling as he maneuvered through the room. She slides out of the bed, her bare legs brushing against the feathered blanket tickles her skin - she doesn't make a sound as her feet sink into the plush carpet, tiptoeing off into the bathroom.

He walks through the double doors just as she's emerging. His eyes red, bags set beneath them, his body deflated – he had a brown bag pinched between his pinky and ring finger as he held two steaming cups of coffee.

He offers her a soft smile, holds the cup out to her as a peace offering, their fingers brushing in the silent exchange.

Her palm warming from the skin of the cardboard cup. She stares into his eyes, searching and silently prying for answers. But he blinks his eyes away and turns on his heel shuffling away from her. He didn't want to talk – not today.

Red sleeps in a separate bed in the several weeks that follow.

* * *

_**When I hold you in my arms at night.**_

_**Don't you know that you sleep in the spotlight?**_

It's a two syllable name that he mumbles into her ear one night – his body spooned against her back. His arms that wrap around her grip her too tightly, whenever she inhaled she felt it in her ribs. But the name, it was persistent - she can feel it vibrate against the shell of her ear.

He begins to tremble behind her as the unidentifiable words begin to fall from his lips. His head falls further into her shoulder, muffling the words further into obscurity.

Her fingers lightly trace an odd pattern into his arms around her middle. Attempting to draw him out of the night terror. It must be effective - she feels him shudder once more behind her, then the words stop spilling into her shoulder blade and his hold loosens.

She knows he's awake, his breathing changing from short and laborious to an even inhale and exhale that only awareness would grant him.

Neither acknowledge each other further. She keeps touching him lightly, and when Red begins to untangle himself - she clutches his arm in warning. He relents, dragging her body with his as he turns onto his back. Staring absentmindedly into the ceiling. The moonlight catching the passive curves of his face and contours of his nose, shading him in black and white.

She opens her mouth to speak, her lips parting – waiting. The words never come.

It's a choke-hold, the silence that grips slender fingers around her throat. As the questions keel over and die before they truly form into a substance. She slides her fingers through the coarse hair that peppers his pectoral muscles, gliding softly up his clavicle and neck – until she is cupping his jaw and turning his head down to focus on her. Red's arm around her hip pulls, and forces her further into his body. Liz's left elbow digging into the mattress as she tries to climb higher over him.

Her hair spills over his face when she finally gets the leverage she sought, cloaking him under a protective barrier – the light couldn't touch him now.

She slowly descends touching her lips to his mildly. It's not a persistent kiss, it's not even a kiss of passion – it's just a lethargic push and pull of emotion. Her thumb moving side to side along his jaw, coaxing the clenched muscle to relax. To grow slack, to seek comfort in her presence, instead of building these long-lived barricades between them.

A suspire escapes him, his tense muscles crumbling beneath her as her tongue gently swipes across his bottom lip. He grants her the access she so desperately seeks, as his hand slides into her hair; cupping the back of her head adding more pressure to their kiss.

When she pulls away – her cheek resting heavily inside his palm - her eyes are glossing over as she struggles to look into his.

She softly utters. "You don't have to be alone."

* * *

_**And all your dreams you keep inside.**_

_**You're telling me the secrets that you just can't hide.**_

The hospital has Red heavily sedated.

There is the constant hum of the air conditioner kicking on and off. The hustle and bustle that flits in through the flimsy curtains of the Critical Care Unit room that left them with only a slight form of privacy. The scrapping of wheeled carts being pushed from shared room to shared room - the person to the left of them was going into VFIB.

Liz can tune it all out, the crash carts – the shouts as they called for the charge.

She's finely tuned into the steady beating of Red's own heart.

_Beep, Beep-Beep – Beep, Beep-Beep. _

Her eyes trained upon the worried brow that occupies him. The wrinkles in his squinted eyes. Even in drug induced sleep, he lay plagued with whatever tormented him.

Liz drags the chair until it's pressing into the stiff mattress of his bed. Sinks further into the worn cushion, observing his hand twitching at his side, his skin as pale as the scratchy sheet it rest upon. His fingers flex and curl around the sheet, bunching it into his palm. She wants to reach over and touch his hand, hold it between hers – but not in the watchful eyes of the hospital. Never in public.

Maybe it's the drugs that allow the words to form distinctly, but she understands them all the same. It was a question.

"Where are you?" he mumbled over and over – until it slurred and turned back into the syllables she grew used to hearing. His leg sways restlessly, and the next words tumble out loud and clear, his heart monitor growing erratic. "Renee-"

The two syllable name now had content.

Her heart pulls tightly inside her chest as she reaches forward and clasps her hand over his. Slipping her fingers into their loose grip on the sheets, folding them under and squeezing gently. The mumblings stop, his heart lulling back into the soft staccato rhythm. "I'm here Red" she promises, her voice in a fragile state as she fought against the anvil heavy tears ready to fall.

To hell with prying eyes.

* * *

_**You tell me that you want me.**_

_**You tell me that you need me. **_

_**You tell me that you love me.**_

The night the Adversary is shot in cold blood, is the night the night terrors begin ease away. It takes months before they cease to exist, but like most things when given time they do gradually get better. Or at the least, more tolerable; he still had bad nights, but they were coming few and far between these days.

_A burden __was__ lifted – a new beginning begun – fresh ink awaiting application on the white blank page._

She lay awake watching his chest rise and fall rhythmically. He looked ten years younger as the light snores emitted from him.

Liz is captivated by every relaxed muscle in his face. Her fingers itch to touch him, but she's afraid – she didn't want to break his serenity.

His lips part, and purse together, a content noise edging it's way out of him.

He whispers her name, once and then twice. Her heart swinging like a pendulum – walloping against her chest walls and then repelling. The third time it crawls out from the back of this throat in a thick rasp, she shifts and leans closer. He's mumbling incoherently once again – words with no true meaning, just vague sounds that resemble statements.

He turns onto his side, facing toward her, eyes still shut – she could feel his every warm breath as it caressed her cheeks. His hand reaches out searching for her in the dark - it skims along her outer thigh. The callous texture of his palm setting her skin ablaze as her stomach coils tightly from the contact. "Lizzie," he breathes once again, voice rough and fogged with sleep. She struggles to fill her lungs with oxygen, a thudding pulsates in her temples, vibrating into her eardrums. "I love you." may have tumbled out, it was just barely there... just barely understandable.

She gasps too loudly and chokes on sobs as the wrecking ball he unconsciously swung collapsed her chest. His eyes dart open – worry woven into the enlarged pupils. His arms immediately wrap around her, dragging her into the safety of his embrace. She clings tighter to his form, until they bleed together and fit as one.

Her tears stop when her ear turns over his steady heart beat.

_Thump, Thump-Thump. Thump, Thump-Thump_

"Red," she mumbles into his chest, the hairs tickling her nose. "You told me you love me-" his fingers at the base of her spine stop their delicate touches, as his free hand tips her chin up to look at him. "In your sleep – you told me that you love me - Do you love me?"

"Of course I do." his words issued from a quavering voice. She can only bring herself to nod into his fingertips, as a slew of new tears began to form. He bends and places tender kisses to her salt stained cheeks.

There is a kick in her stomach, and Red must feel it transfer over to him because his face splits into a grin. The hand that holds her chin falls to her swelled belly as another firm kick penetrates his palm. "Surely you knew that?" his eyes search hers but she remains quiet.

"Lizzie?"

Her front teeth grip her bottom lip in a vise. "Assumptions can always obscure the truth." she winces when his lips form a tight line and his brow furrows. "Don't pay attention to me," her voice reaches an unnaturally high octave "I'm just over emotional-"

He gulps laboriously. "The truth comes out when a person is in a state of uncontrollable emotion."

A dense tension forms around them as they both just hold each others gazes. "It's not-" she stammers, "It's not that I didn't know" the fluttering of her stomach, must be uneasy on the tiny life growing inside her because his kicks come more frequently, stronger and more persistent. Like he was in a rather protective manner, trying to kick Red's hand off of her. "You've never said it," she spits out hurriedly. "Aloud... consciously"

He begins to laugh, and it's the furthest from the reaction she expected. "Just to point out-" He threads delicately, mindful of her mood swings. "You never said it aloud either," she's taken aback by the accusation, and she begins to rank her memories for a time that she did, but comes up empty handed. "Actions speak louder than words Lizzie." he whispers quietly into her ear sending a shudder in its wake.

"I love you." she sighs contently, the admission causing her muscles to seem lighter – everything seemed lighter.

"I know," his palm slides across her stomach before it settled in the middle of the bump, her fingers crawl over and lace between his; both of their hands joined over the hope of a brighter future they created in the mist of absolute despair. "I know." he repeats, causing a constricting deep in her chest at the beatific look upon his face.

_**And I know that I'm right...**_

_**'Cause I hear it in the night. **_

_**I hear the secrets that you keep.**_

_**When you're talking in your sleep.**_

* * *

AN: I think this is as fluffy as I can possibly go and lemme tell you it was a feat, As always mistakes are mine.

Reviews are always welcomed and cherished :)

Thanks for reading!

- Red Herring


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